Rishi Sunak is on a policy blitz. Humza Yousaf is facing party backlash after losing former leadership rival Kate Forbes from his cabinet. Ed Davey has this morning launched the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign. And Keir Starmer? The Labour leader is once again making headlines for his bid to distance the Labour party from his predecessor.

On Tuesday, the party’s National Executive Committee met to vote on Starmer’s motion to block Jeremy Corbyn from running to be a Labour MP at the next election on the grounds that the party’s chances of winning the next election would be ‘significantly diminished’ if Mr Corbyn was endorsed. The motion passed by 22 votes to 12.

There could be messy scenes in the build up to a general election should Corbyn choose to stand

It marks the completion of an effort by Starmer to oust Corbyn from the party since winning the leadership. A key part of Starmer’s strategy to win the next election is to persuade voters how much the Labour party has changed since 2019. One of the early acts under Starmer’s leadership was a decision to suspend Corbyn from the party over his reaction to a report on anti-Semitism. Since then, the Labour leadership has grown more confident in its efforts to say Corbynism is an idea of the past. The polls, too, suggest that Starmer’s attempts to pick a fight with the left of the party to show voters he has changed are bearing fruit.

Yet this latest move could prove more complicated. The view among Starmer’s allies is that he has no choice but to do this – were Corbyn to stand the Tories would relentlessly attack the Labour party and try to depict Starmer as still having links to the far left. Dislike of Corbyn was a key factor in the Tories’ favour in 2019 so distancing the party from a divisive former leader will help them in red wall seats and beyond.

However, the downside of this move is that while a fight can make a point, it also risks offering a visual and regular reminder of both Corbyn and internal fighting in the first place. The former Labour leader has signalled that he could stand as an independent, while his close political ally John McDonnell has said he believes the motion is temporary and there will be a way to reinstate him at a later date. Corbyn’s local party has come out behind him. It means there could be messy scenes in the build up to a general election should Corbyn choose to stand.

It also plays into an attack that the Tories are keen to amp up in the coming months – that Starmer is shifty and changes position. On Corbyn, ministers point to the fact Starmer served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and played up his closeness to the former leader during the Labour leadership contest as Starmer tried to woo the grassroots. Sunak has already been polishing his attack lines accusing Starmer at a recent Prime Minister’s questions of supporting ‘free movement of principles’. The plan is to keep pushing this line to suggest that Starmer’s pledges and promises come polling day cannot be taken at their word.